During Short Term, a number of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community members received letters in envelopes marked only with the word “INVITATION.â€�

“Greetings,� each message began. “The time is almost here.�

The signature was mysterious: “ETTGS.� At the same time, containing those same five letters started making cryptic posts. Strange event invitations popped up on students’ Google calendars. A smattering of punch cards quietly appeared inside vinyl table displays in Commons.

Those who followed the clues all ended up in the same place: Olin Arts Center, home of the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Museum of Art. 

For three days this May, the Olin lobby shape-shifted into a first for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½, a pop-up museum gift shop. Students in “Exit Through the Gift Shop,â€� a Short Term course taught by Visiting Assistant Professor of Art and Visual Culture Erin Nolan, created and ran the gift shop, with help from the VizLab, Post and Print, and the museum itself. 

In three-and-a-half weeks, the 13 students designed and brought to life a collection of products — including 3D-printed puzzles, laser-cut keychains, and posters — inspired by student works in the senior art thesis exhibition, “At the Table,â€� which was on display at the Museum of Art through May 31. 

“It’s clear that they’ve put so much work and thought into all the products and how they relate to the art,â€� said gift shop customer Jade Pierce ’27 of Dracut, Mass. “That’s super cool.â€�

Even though the gift shop attracted many customers, no money was exchanged. The purpose of the gift shop was never to generate revenue, Nolan explained. 

She originally had the idea for the shop when students in another course, “Decolonizing the Museum,� posed questions about commodification in museum shops. Nolan, who spent several years working in museums, wondered: Could she teach a course on museum gift shops? As a “microcosm� of a museum, a gift shop would be a fitting place, she thought, to interrogate many of the ideas her courses explore, including neutrality, accessibility, and power in museums.

“It was initially a joke,� Nolan said. “And then the more I thought about it, it seemed like a possibility, like a different kind of experiential, immersive class.�

With the senior art thesis exhibition on display at the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Museum of Art, Nolan thought that Short Term would be the perfect time for the course. In order to encourage genuine engagement with the art and museum installation, the shop would sell at least one item inspired by each student in the senior thesis show, Nolan decided, and its currency would be stamps on punch cards, with customers earning a stamp each time they visited the senior thesis exhibition. Nolan derived the title from iconic and elusive street artist Banksy, who directed a documentary also named Exit Through the Gift Shop and whose work has often interrogated the relationship between money and art.

“I liked the idea of activating student work, especially living artists in the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community. To celebrate studio practice and the department’s studio was exciting, but it was also necessary to  think about the responsibility and care that comes with dealing with student artwork,â€� Nolan said.

A lot of hands-on work would have to be done to make Nolan’s vision into a reality. Though “Exit Through the Gift Shop� was an art and visual culture course, she wanted it to function more like a scientific laboratory, where students leaned on knowledge gleaned from readings and classroom discussion to conduct successful experiments. The academic demographic of the class lent itself well to this; students represented three different class years and a variety of majors, including biology, psychology, music, physics, history, and theater.

Nolan spent months organizing the logistics of the course, and when Short Term began, she and her students hit the ground running. They visited the senior thesis exhibition, dove into texts on museums and gift shops, and brainstormed a flurry of products based on student artwork.

Then they headed to the VizLab, a makerspace in Coram Library with technology like 3D printing and laser cutting, to bring their ideas to life. The VizLab’s senior academic technology consultants, Branden Rush and Dale Rothenberg, supported their process, including helping students with computer-aided design and searching through online repositories for design templates. One of the VizLab’s goals, Rush said, is to be open and accessible to anyone on campus. 

“A lot of times they’re surprised about what’s even possible. … Even if they did 3D printing in a different institution or in high school or something, these are ways of modifying and getting creative that weren’t possible before,â€� Rush said.

The VizLab frequently collaborates with clubs and courses, especially during Short Term. Those collaborations sometimes result in students, like VizLab student worker Evan Boxer-Cook ’26 of Scarborough, Maine, spending years developing their technical skills in the lab. A classical and medieval studies major, Boxer-Cook enrolled in “Exit Through the Gift Shopâ€� because he is interested in pursuing museum studies as a career. 

“This just seemed like a really nice opportunity to gain some practice translating museum objects into consumer goods,â€� Boxer-Cook said. 

Perched in front of a computer in the back of a VizLab room filled with colorful 3D-printed objects, Boxer-Cook digitally traced the shape of ceramic works by Jeremy Felton ’26 of Sebastopol, Calif. He then laser-cut stencils of the shapes onto thin sheets of wood, which students later used to spray-paint designs onto tote bags.

For arts and visual culture major Audrey Esteves ’26 of Cranford, N.J., 3D printing and laser cutting were new skills, though she had taken several courses with Nolan.

“I love her classes so much,â€� Esteves said. “I think they’re so engaging and make you think critically about so many different parts of the art world and institutions and education.â€�

While Esteves was excited to explore the blending of digital technology with physical art, she was particularly looking forward to offering her perspective as one of two students in the course who also had artwork in the senior thesis exhibition — the other being Ella Hannaford ’26 of South Portland, Maine, who designed the gift shop punch cards.

“I wanted to see how we could develop mine and Ella’s objects and others’ into physical reproductions and see where that could stretch to because I’ve never really thought about that with my work,â€� Esteves said.

Esteves creates oil paintings inspired by ideas of sleep and rest, which are dark and subtly textured. She knew it would be difficult to reproduce them through 2D products such as posters. Instead, with Rush’s help, she 3D-printed a miniature replica of a room in one of her paintings, featuring a bed, table, and lamp.

Hannaford, a photographer, had previously 3D-printed with the VizLab for another art and visual culture course. She had an ambitious idea to create a 3D-printed stereoscope à la the classic View-Master with miniature prints of her senior thesis photographs inside.

“I’ve seen a lot of change in the time that I’ve been here in utilizing these spaces [like the Vizlab] for the purposes of art,â€� Hannaford said. “What can be created multiplies exponentially when you start thinking about the possibilities that are available to you in concert with these spaces. I think that it’s a really wonderful opportunity.â€�

The stereoscope would expand upon themes of viewership and tourism in Hannaford’s senior thesis photography, which, inspired by her childhood growing up in coastal Maine, features a metal viewfinder at Two Lights State Park in Cape Elizabeth.

Hannaford printed replicas of her photographs onto transparency paper and glued the paper onto a film sheet she laser cut. She worked with VizLab staff to find an online template for a 3D-printed stereoscope, which she then printed and manually glued together before placing the film sheet inside. 

She wasn’t sure if it would work, but it did; she could place her face against the lens and, pushing the film sheet through the viewing device, watch her tiny photographs tick by. Hannaford ultimately printed six stereoscopes, which “sold� for the most expensive price on the table: 10 stamps.

“It made me feel excited about my own art again because I had been so close to it,� Hannaford said. “Then suddenly, I was having to relinquish some control and let it take on a new identity and a life of its own.�

Other 3D-printed products included a Rubik’s-like cube with colors pulled from a tunnel book by Grace Thomas ’26 of Bethesda, Md.; kits to put together miniature chairs modeled after a piece by Qwynn Kobertz ’26 of Framingham, Mass.; and LEGO-style sets modeled after a vase by Jeremy Felton ’26. The gift shop also sold stickers, posters, and postcards of student artwork, printed on campus by Post and Print.

“I thought this was such an incredible opportunity that teaches so many different skills,â€� said Abby Salkind-Foraker ’29 of Washington, D.C. She designed a laser-cut wood puzzle based on an embroidered tapestry by Bissan Kablawi ’26 of London. “You’re getting three-and-a-half dedicated weeks to devote yourself to the creation of this and working with the team and studying art.â€�

Operating on a tight deadline, the students had to carefully divide their time, especially because certain products, like the LEGO-style kit, took upward of five hours to 3D print and required some trial-and-error. But the gift shop opened successfully on May 19 without encountering any major logistical problems, said Caroline McCarthy ’26, an English and Hispanic studies double major from New Haven, Conn.

“It’s honestly been a smashing success in that regard,â€� McCarthy said as she worked at the shop. “I also have been liking the wide range of attendees we’ve been getting. It has been students, staff, and faculty.â€�

Students worked the gift shop in “shiftsâ€� with support from Nolan, who was always nearby to offer advice and support. Hoping to expand opportunities to connect with the senior thesis artwork, the students gave customers extra stamps if they arrived at the gift shop ready to share their thoughts on the exhibition. Making exhibition attendance the shop’s currency “was a genius move,â€� said ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Museum of Art Director Carrie Cushman.

“Museums can have a reputation for being unwelcoming and stuffy, which is the opposite of the environment that we are hoping to cultivate at the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Museum,â€� Cushman said. “The students seemed to really understand the opportunity they had with this class to break down those barriers.â€�

The students were also in charge of publicity. They designed the mysterious, guerilla-style marketing campaign in the image of Banksy, known for sporadically creating public artwork under the cover of night. Students asked their ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ community members to show up for them, and they did, with friends like Whitney Moore ’28 of South Lake, Texas, stopping by to shop or spray paint a tote bag with the stencils designed by Boxer-Cook.

“I was super excited to see what they would come up with, and it definitely exceeded my expectations,� Moore said. “They have a lot of beautiful stuff here for sale.�

Nolan’s hope was that students would walk away with a new appreciation for what an art and visual culture course could be like. “This provided an alternative to a traditional course where students used the museum, the VizLab, and the campus, more broadly, as a classroom,� she said. “The experiential and immersive nature of the class, hopefully, allows students to think about their own experience as consumers in the world.�

The students agreed: this course had a little bit of everything, teaching lessons in design, interpreting art history, working with a museum, and more.

“I thought this was such an incredible opportunity that teaches so many different skills,â€� said Abby Salkind-Foraker ’29 of Washington, D.C. She designed a laser-cut wood puzzle based on an embroidered tapestry by Bissan Kablawi ’26 of London. “You’re getting three-and-a-half dedicated weeks to devote yourself to the creation of this and working with the team and studying art.â€�

For seniors in the course, designing the gift shop was their final hurrah at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. Hannaford — whose work as a photographer for the Portland Sea Dogs included an opportunity to photograph the Boston Red Sox — thought that the project was a fantastic blend of visual art and art history, her respective major and minor.

“This was the perfect way to wrap up my academic career at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and so cool too that I get to work with my own art and keep kind of interrogating it on so many levels,â€� Hannaford said. “I’m continuing to think about it and think of ways to work with it, which I think will serve me really well even after I graduate.â€�

Short Term, a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ “minimesterâ€� of three-and-a-half weeks during which students take only one course, is here. Course offerings run the gamut, touching on everything from pop culture, to business to test preparation, and give students the opportunity to deeply engage with a single topic.

During Short Term (which starts May 4 and ends May 27) students get the chance to extend their learning beyond what they usually find on campus. Through ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½â€™ practitioner-taught courses, which invite professionals across disciplines to share their work and career pathways with students as visiting instructors, students explore subjects outside of the core liberal arts curriculum. During off-campus Short Term courses, students conduct fieldwork, research, and culture in places like Arizona, Zambia, Hungary, Poland, Italy and more.

Below, explore 10 of the 100-plus Short Term courses offered this spring.

Visiting Assistant Professor of Biology Brecia Despard is teaching “Biological Skills: Field Ecology,� a course specifically designed for students interested in pursuing internships and careers in the biological sciences. This course will introduce ecological principles and research methods across major coastal marine biomes, and help students develop field skills specifically geared toward these kinds of ecosystems. Additionally, students will learn how to analyze and create visualizations using data they collect in the programming language R.

Professor of French and Francophone Studies Mary T. Rice-DeFosse will teach students about the representation of French culinary traditions in her course “Cooking Up French Culture.� By observing how French food is prepared and eaten in film and literature, students will come to understand how the French identity has changed in the modern era. Plus, students will get the opportunity to prepare and serve dishes of their own creation.

With her course “Feminist Political Theory (Taylor’s Version),â€� Assistant Professor of Politics Lucy Britt will merge pop culture with political theory. The course examines Taylor Swift, the moment’s most popular female musical artist, and her larger-than-life persona and cultural impact in terms of how they interact with or expand upon feminist theory. Covering everything from celebrity politics to intersectionality and queer counter-readings to norms of motherhood, this course dives beyond online discourse to offer students vocabulary and knowledge for discussing “Miss Americanaâ€� and pop culture feminism more broadly. Students will end the course with their very own — or, as Swift would say, “Taylor’s Versionâ€� — research product comprising original data collection.

Visiting Assistant Professor of History Frances Bell will be teaching “Lewiston: A History of a Place,â€� a course that combines in-class learning and site visits to gain a more comprehensive understanding of Lewiston — the beloved home of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College — and its rich history. Through in-class learning, field trips, and creative projects, students will gain a holistic understanding of how the spatial history of Lewiston has changed from the times of Indigenous settlement to the post-industrial period. 

In “Maine’s Marine Resources,� Assistant Professor of Economics Amanda Lindsay will be teaching students about the health and management of marine resources in Maine. On day trips along the Maine coast, students will be able to see firsthand the challenges marine management systems face. This course is aimed at students who are interested in natural resource economics, a field that Lindsay specializes in.

While ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ ceramics students usually use a gas reduction kiln to fire their clay projects, this Short Term, Lecturer in Art and Visual Culture Susan Dewsnap is teaching “Pit Firing Ceramics: Contemporary Approaches to an Ancient Process of Firing Ceramic Objects.â€� Pit firing is an ancient approach to firing ceramic objects that uses an actual fire pit to transform raw clay pots into finished work. In this course, students will use organic materials that they gather to decorate their work and see how firing in a pit results in surprising outcomes. 

Faculty members and alumni from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College are coming to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ this Short Term to teach “Practicum in Business Consulting: ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½-Tuck Business Consulting Essentialsâ€� — a course that teaches foundational business skills through a client-focused project management framework. Students will learn through a case study that simulates real-world business challenges and gain confidence in decision-making processes. This is the second year that ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ has offered a business course led by Tuck alumni and faculty as part of its Short Term practitioner-taught courses. Peter Friedman ’92, P ’24, P ’26, who earned an MBA from Tuck in 2003, and is a ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ trustee, will serve as practitioner-in-residence for this course, with additional Tuck-associated instructors Aram Donigian, Amy Florentino, Patroklos Karantinos, and Conwell Worthington III.

“Practicum in Mediation and Restorative Practices� is a practitioner-taught course that functions as a conflict resolution skills workshop. Through techniques used by restorative justice practitioners such as circle facilitation and restorative language and problem-solving approaches to resolving disputes used by meditators, students will acquire tools to improve communication and facilitate cooperation and collaboration. Practitioners-in-residence for this course are Margaret Micolichek, Jamar Williams, Karen Groat, and Leah Boyd.

“Practicum in Public Healthâ€� is a practitioner-taught course taught by Leah Elsmore ’12, a senior healthcare consultant with consultancy firm North Highland, that teaches students how to apply qualitative methods to public health challenges in a mix of traditional and experiential academic settings. In the classroom, students will learn about public health foundations and various qualitative research techniques. In the community, students will have a chance to apply what they learned in the classroom, working to solve a concrete health challenge in Lewiston. 

For juniors and seniors planning to attend law school, the course “Short Term 2026 LSAT Prepâ€� is an opportunity to get ready for a crucial part of the application process. Ben Paris, who holds a JD and has for 30 years worked in test prep and education design, will lead the three-week practitioner-taught course. This course is made possible by a generous ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ donor, meaning there is no cost to ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students.

Reporting by Charlotte Comrack ’27 of Washington, D.C., and Ramona McNish ’28 of Palo Alto, Calif.

The midcoast Maine town of Damariscotta, a popular destination for both tourists and retirees looking to resettle, was also a field-trip destination for a new Short Term course this year.

The downtown is a little gem whose charms include quirky-but-useful amenities and architecture dating back to the 1840s. Water views abound, as the densely built-up downtown is bordered on three sides by the Damariscotta River.

An especially striking view is from a parking lot sandwiched between the river and the downtown. Just steps from the main street, this spacious riverfront lot has been an essential asset to the town for more than 50 years.

But if no action is taken — perhaps even if action is taken — that parking lot could morph from essential asset to fatal weak point before another 50 years have passed.

Students, faculty, and guests of the course “In Search of Higher Ground” pose with the Damariscotta River in the background on May 1, 2019. (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

The Damariscotta is a tidal river. As climate change drives up sea levels, high tides are getting higher. And when the river rises enough to flood downtown, it will come right across that parking lot.

So if you’re going to discuss a town’s response to sea level rise, what better place to do it than the local ground zero? That’s why, for their Short Term course “In Search of Higher Ground: Sea Level Rise, Flooding, and the Future of the Eastern Seaboard,â€� ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ professors Lynne Lewis and Francis Eanes got their students together with local officials at the parking lot to discuss the town’s flood-response strategy.

Damariscotta, whose parking lot is already subject to flooding during extremes of tide and weather, was one of a few Maine destinations for the class. (The local authorities, by the way, plan to raise the lot by three feet and edge it with a new seawall. A second seawall will protect the north side of downtown. The total cost would have run about $1.8 million according to a estimate from 2015, when construction was considerably cheaper.)

Following the local excursions, the centerpiece of the course was a 10-day trip to the coasts of Virginia and North Carolina, where the battle with high water is much further along. The class visited research centers, took tours on land and sea, and met with experts in diverse disciplines. They learned the dichotomy between “green� adaptations to rising water that mimic and support natural systems, and “gray� adaptations like seawalls and bulkheads.

A member of the “In Search of Higher Groundâ€� class, Henry Colt ’19 poses at the wastewater treatment plant by the sea in Boothbay Harbor, Maine. Six feet tall, Colt marks the level sea water could reach during a northeaster in the year 2060 according to one scenario. (Lynne Lewis for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

The class saw the double-deck piers that the U.S. Navy is building at its base in Norfolk, Va., a city especially hard-hit by rising seas. And they visited Nags Head, a town on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, where authorities are spending $43 million to “renourish� the beloved-but-eroding beach with a layer of sand, four and a half feet thick, pumped in from the sea floor a mile or more off the coast.

Focusing on economic and social vulnerabilities to sea level rise, “In Search of Higher Ground� was explicitly an experiential course, designed to put the students where the action is and then inform their responses to it.

Though coastal flooding is just one subset of the problems caused by climate change, its ramifications are mind-numbingly complex — including the loss of critical wildlife habitat, the loss of homes, businesses, and public infrastructure, and the monetary and social costs of relocating communities.

Francis Eanes and Lynne Lewis pose in Damariscotta, Maine, during the May 1 visit by their “In Search of Higher Ground” class. Eanes is a visiting assistant professor of environmental studies and Lewis is the Elmer W. Campbell Professor of Economics at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½. (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

So maybe the best thing you can say about sea level rise is that it’s an educational cornucopia. The road trips included visits with environmental economists, engineers, biologists, oceanographers, physicists, government officials, and more. With each new conversation, “I would see different students light up like, ‘Oh, like that’s what I’m really interested in,’â€� says Eanes, himself a visiting assistant professor of environmental studies who studies urban issues and food systems.

“The experiential piece is the springboard to taking a deeper dive into the more technical stuff,� he explains. “The topic is interesting to everybody, but different people will gravitate toward different methods� for coming to grips with it. The class, Eanes notes, was mostly underclass students, and more than half of the group were ES majors.

The trips were as educational for the two ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ professors as for their dozen students. “We could help students process and answer some questions, but most of the time I didn’t know the answer,â€� says Lewis, herself an environmental economist and the Elmer W. Campbell Professor of Economics. “We were learning right along with them.â€�

Inevitably, some members of the class approached the field trip ready to offer ideas. But that changed as they encountered the facts and the people on the scene. One student told Lewis, “I went in with my preconceived ‘You need to do this and that.’ And I realized that that’s not right.â€�

Bulldozers spread sand near a beach house at Nags Head, N.C., part of a $43 million beach “renourishmentâ€� project. Sand is dredged from the ocean floor and pumped more than a mile from an offshore “borrowâ€� site to the beach. (Lynne Lewis for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“You can watch the PowerPoint and think you understand,� says Koharu Aoki, a first-year student from Tokyo. “And then you get to see the real thing and it is totally different.�

Still, the impulse to march in brandishing advice is understandable when you consider the political, social, and cultural gridlock that humanity has imposed on this self-inflicted crisis. “We can’t fight each other and the rising ocean� too, says Kassie Wilson ’21 of Westford, Mass., a newly declared environmental studies major who took the course.

The ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ group heard from several sources that in negotiating response strategies with certain stakeholders, they often had to avoid the words “climate changeâ€� in favor of less politically polarized language, such as “recurrent flooding.â€�

Bob Faunce, the now-retired county planner who helped Damariscotta design its response strategy, mentioned the impact of Republican Paul LePage, Maine’s governor from 2011 till this year, who halted state climate-change adaptation plans soon after taking office.

“Not being able to discuss [climate change] at the state level has been very difficult,� Faunce said. “The next dollar I get from the state [for adaptation] will be the first dollar I’ve gotten from them.� (Funding for the Damariscotta project has come from federal and private sources.)

The Navy has added a second deck to some piers at Naval Base Norfolk to accommodate higher water levels and expedite the handling of cargo. (Lynne Lewis for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Still, the field trips afforded examples of ingenuity and realism that gave the visitors from ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ some cause for optimism. Norfolk, facing one of the fastest rates of sea level rise in the nation, displayed a matter-of-fact effectiveness that was particularly admirable.

Deputy Resilience Officer Kyle Spencer told the class about the system of sensors around the city that, through the street navigation app Waze, show drivers which streets are flooded and impassable.

“He makes things happen,â€� says Lewis — “basically saying, ‘Well, here’s what I need. Nobody’s giving it to me, so I’m going to figure out how to do it, and I’m bringing people together to talk about it.’ It was pretty impressive.â€�

Norfolk also exemplified a principle common to many of the most effective approaches to the problem. “There’s this paradigm shift of, ‘We’re going to live with water, not try to keep the water away,’â€� says Eanes. “Trying to wall ourselves off from the water is not actually the most effective strategy, from a geophysical standpoint or from a psychological community standpoint.â€�

A “living shorelineâ€� in rural Mathews County, Va. A rock sill, center, dissipates wave energy coming from the left while allowing water through to support marine plant and animal life. (Lynne Lewis for ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Instead, there’s increasing emphasis on infrastructure like flood parks, recreation areas that can also be used to contain floodwaters; and “living shorelines,� features like artificial reefs, wetlands, and dunes. These are “human constructions, and often will involve some sort of gray or hard infrastructure,� says Eanes. “But they’re using natural processes to absorb some of the increasing intensity of storm events.�

The measures that people like Spencer are “doing and thinking about are very creative,â€� Lewis says. “People are very aware that these might be Band-Aids, temporary solutions, but it’s what we’ve got right now.â€�

Offering some generational context, Eanes points out that the daily news hasn’t given college-age students much reason to expect creative solutions to large-scale problems, especially involving climate change. “The baseline that they are working from is that institutions and approaches that we’ve had for decades are not commensurate with the scale of the problem,â€� he suggests.

“People are very aware that these might be Band-Aids, but it’s what we’ve got right now.â€�

“And then to see that, ‘Oh, actually communities all over the place are working on this’ is a relief,� he says, even if the focus is on accommodating high water in the short term, and not mitigating climate change in the long term.

People leading the response to water that threatens their communities are “making decisions in political, social, and economic situations that we can’t know just from being at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and learning about it,â€� Dianna Georges ’22 of Clifton, N.J., said during a class meeting after the trip.

“Some people the class encountered are used to living with water, while for others it’s a new experience,� Lewis points out. “Adaptation is very localized and very context- and geography-specific.�

She adds, “No one is really talking about managed retreat. At least not yet.�

ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students hear about flood response planning from Damariscotta Town Manager Matt Lutkus, center left, and former county planner Bob Faunce, center right, during their May 1 visit. (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Short Term is a time of celebration, of spring and student accomplishments, and both are abundant on the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Instagram page. Here are the 10 ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ Instagram posts from Short Term that captured the most likes.

10. Making their mark

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A post shared by (@batescollege) on May 22, 2019 at 9:47am PDT

9. Winning the title

 

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A post shared by (@batescollege) on Apr 28, 2019 at 4:29pm PDT

8. Sights of Spring

 

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A post shared by (@batescollege) on May 7, 2019 at 2:13pm PDT

7. Recognizing leadership

 

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A post shared by (@batescollege) on May 9, 2019 at 9:02am PDT

6. All things seem possible

 

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A post shared by (@batescollege) on May 13, 2019 at 9:31am PDT

5. Fashioning unity

 

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A post shared by (@batescollege) on May 15, 2019 at 9:44am PDT

4. Letting go

 

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A post shared by (@batescollege) on May 18, 2019 at 8:39am PDT

3. Rowing in the ethereal

 

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A post shared by (@batescollege) on Apr 25, 2019 at 3:51pm PDT

2. The mighty Falls

 

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A post shared by (@batescollege) on Apr 23, 2019 at 8:55am PDT

1. A momentous occasion

 

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A post shared by (@batescollege) on May 16, 2019 at 2:14pm PDT

“Race on!� someone yelled from the shore. But that was a lot to ask of 14 students making their maiden voyage on the Puddle in long, narrow flat-bottomed boats.

Eight in one boat and six in the other, the students used paddles and poles to meander around the pond for a few minutes before heading back to shore. It was late afternoon on May 22.

About 100 people looked on, as did wary blackbirds perched on the reeds. A skilled canoeist steered curlicues around the student boats to give his video-shooting passenger the good angles. But no pressure, kids!

 A video clip of the boat launch by Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College

Now, if someone had yelled, “Chiseling on!� or “Planing on!� those same students would have been all over it — for they had built the wooden Japanese-style boats during the previous five weeks of Short Term.

And they had just launched them in a ceremony that culminated “Apprentice Learning: Building the Japanese Boat,� one of the practitioner-taught courses arranged by the Center for Purposeful Work.

A boat builder and writer from Vergennes, Vt., Douglas Brooks taught the course and presided over the highly ritualized boat launch. The Buddhist and Shinto spiritual traditions co-exist in Japan, Brooks told his audience. But Shinto, whose rituals honor the spirit kami that reside in all creation, rules all things boaty.

“Conducting the rituals brings us closer to nature and closer to something divine,� Brooks explained. “And that’s it. That’s it.�

“I’m doing a purification ritual over the students, who badly need that,� Brooks kidded, “and over the boats.�

A shrine had been set up on a table between the boats. It contained offerings to the kami in the form of fruit, green tea, and sake, and there was a stick to which streamers of accordion-folded paper were attached. To begin the launch ceremony, Brooks shook the streamers over the boats and students, placed a handful of rhododendron leaves on the shrine, clapped twice, and offered a silent prayer.

Douglas Brooks shakes the streamers over the boats. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

One by one, the 14 students from Brooks’ course continued the purifying ritual, anointing the boats with salt and sake, and striking a few sparks over them, which protects travelers when they leave home.

Then each followed Brooks’ example with the rhododendron leaves (offered in place of a Japanese plant unavailable here), claps, and prayers. A few onlookers took part, too. (One observer was Ralph Sylvester ’50, a frequent visitor to the boat-building sessions.)

Next came an a cappella song that amped up the mood. It was a traditional Japanese song led by En Sawyer Lee, who had met Brooks when both were studying folkways on the same institute on an island in Japan. It was a big rousing song in a sea chantey vein and a smiling Lee got the crowd to join him in a staccato call-and-response of the word “Yoisa!�

En Sawyer Lee leads the “Yoisa” chant. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

And then, to applause from the viewers, the students carried their boats to the shores of Lake Andrews, slipped them in, and set out across the water. A safe distance across the pond, students in two inflatable vessels looked on. Yoisa!

Varsity rower Grace Murnaghan ’20 of Lexington, Mass., was on her feet poling the six-person boat. The boat handled “surprisingly well,” she said later. “It didn’t exactly turn on a dime, but we were able to get the hang of maneuvering it pretty quickly.

“From what I heard from Mr. Brooks, it sounds like Japanese farmers and fishermen who owned these boats could use the pole to travel with speed in a perfectly straight line, a feat we certainly didn’t conquer in our short trip around the Puddle!”

Japanese tradition informed the boat-building course from the start. Held in a back room off the Chase Hall loading dock, course sessions were mostly silent, with just brief instructions and demonstrations to begin each gathering. The idea was to elevate observation and mindfulness as ways of learning.

Students carry one of the boats to the water. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“It’s kind of cool, because you’re focused on what you’re doing and it’s repetitive motion,� Nathaniel Badger ’22 of Edwards, Colo., explained during an open house for the course a week prior to the launch. “You kind of get into this trance where you’re meditating through your work.�

Each of the students learned each of the woodworking techniques that Brooks taught, and learned to flow from task to task according to need, whether the need pertained to the process or to a particular set of aching muscles.

A ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ rower, Grace Murnaghan ’20 handles the pole as her boat executes a turn before the eyes of the crowd on the Lake Andrews shore. Alex Platt ’22 is paddling. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

“One of the first things we were told was, even if you’ve built a boat before, when you walk into the class, assume you know nothing,� Badger said. “You need that fresh start, because if your ego is in the way, you’re not going to get out of the class what you want to get.�

Since 1996, Brooks has apprenticed with Japanese boat builders and written several books on the practice. Just prior to the launch, he described his ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ experience as “fantastic,â€� drawing the syllables out for emphasis.

“From the organization of this course, working with the Center for Purposeful Work, to the collegiality of faculty who contacted me with an interest in my course, to the students, who really were wonderful and worked very hard,� he said, “it’s been amazing.�

Each spring, the Harward Center for Community Partnerships preps and deploys a working group of students who spend the five weeks of Short Term tackling specific projects with local partners.

Whether helping a local land trust improve its signage or surveying pediatricians about how they discuss home gun safety with parents, “these students are mobilizing some pretty sophisticated skills and capacities for their off-campus projects and partners,â€� says Harward Center director Darby Ray.

Meet a few members of this year’s Short Term Action/Research Team and hear about the challenges and rewards of their projects:

Genesis Paulino ’21

Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College

Hometown: Lawrence, Mass.

Major: Sociology

Partner:  St. Mary’s Nutrition Center

Project: Developing resources for educational garden activity bins. Each bin will focus on a specific garden unit, such as seeds and pollination, and include lesson plans, related books, and worksheets.

Genesis says: “During this project, I learned about urban gardening and how to make classroom activities accessible.

“Researching activities for kids to learn about gardening — and actually gardening myself — was something that I wouldn’t have imagined myself doing a few years ago. I had some experience coming into this project, but certainly not to the extent the project involved.

“It’s important to move out of our comfort zones. Life is always a learning experience, and we should take the time to challenge ourselves — taking opportunities to learn even more about ourselves and the world around us.â€�

Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College

Clio Barr ’19

Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College

Hometown: Hallowell, Maine

Major: Politics

Partner: The Center for Wisdom’s Women

Project: Supporting sales, marketing, and business development efforts of Herban Works, a social enterprise run by women at the Center for Wisdom’s Women who make and sell healing products.

Clio says: “Effective marketing tells a story. Through working with women at the center, I had the privilege of getting to know them and learning about their stories and the incredible story of Herban Works. I hope this project is a small step toward continuing to share those stories with the rest of the community and the world.�

Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College

Zachary Anderson ’19

Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College

Hometown: Rochester, N.Y.

Major: Sociology

Partner: Lewiston Public Schools’ English Language Learning Office

Project: Researching best practices for creating an accessible website for Lewiston’s ELL program and working with the program director to determine appropriate materials for the website. 

Zach says: “My experience affirmed the challenges that exist in trying to compile a comprehensive website to serve the needs of the English language learners community.

“While finding translated materials or having them translated is a slow and cumbersome process, it is extremely valuable because it provides equitable information to all parents about the ELL program here in Lewiston.

“In doing this work, I was inspired by the commitment of my partners. As Lewiston continues to grow and change, it is comforting to know that my partners in the ELL Office will continue to work on providing a quality education to all students and families.�

Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College

Katherine Ennis ’19

Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College

Hometown: Morristown, N.J.

Major: Economics

Partner:  Androscoggin Land Trust

Project: Working with the land trust to develop new trail signage and lead an after-school nature walk at Sherwood Heights Elementary School.  

Katie says: “My project required considerable communication skills to ensure that everyone was on the same page. The work included renaming some of the land trust’s walking trails, and I learned that people can have a strong emotional attachment to place names; some did not want to see anything change.

“This was a difficult issue to navigate, since we want to respect the community members and the frequent trail users while keeping in mind the needs of future trail users and new members of the community.�

Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College

Maya Seshan ’20

Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College

Hometown: Wilton, Conn.

Major: Politics

Partner: Maine Gun Safety Coalition

Project: Conducting a study of Maine pediatrics offices to assess how frequently pediatricians speak with parents about home firearm safety and to learn what pediatricians need to have effective conversations with parents. The goal is to create a brochure that pediatricians can provide to parents on the topic. 

Maya says: “My experience made me see physicians as actors that can drive public policy. The physicians that I spoke with serve the needs of their community and provide healthcare that is, in fact, tailored specifically for the people they serve.

“Maine is, of course, is a state with a gun culture, and this fact presents an interesting case for why it is so critical that pediatricians continue to speak with their patients about gun safety in the home.

“I see this as a chance to change the way that society thinks about gun safety — not as a politically salient issue, but rather as a public health issue.�

Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College

Teagan Ladner ’21

Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College

Hometown:  Shrewsbury, Mass.

Major:Ìý¸é³ó±ð³Ù´Ç°ù¾±³¦

Partner: YWCA Central Maine

Project: Developing a video to promote the racial justice work the YWCA does through its Stand Against Racism event.

Teagan says: “During my STA/RT project, I learned the importance of being involved in community-engaged work beyond the role given or task at hand. As a videographer, it can be easy to distance yourself from the people you are filming and the event taking place, but I found it useful to allow myself to get involved in the event without using the lens as a barrier.

“In my case, that meant putting down the camera and participating in dialogue groups after the film screening during the Stand Against Racism weekend. By engaging in deep conversations about race and immigration, I became inspired by the vocal youth in the Lewiston-Auburn community leading these discussions. I was then able to look for clips in my footage that I felt most accurately represented the themes brought up by youth voices in the discussions I had.

“In general, I would encourage others to try to understand the people and mission of their community partner by participating in new ways that may not be in your written job description.�

Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College

Scenario:

You’re agents of MI6, the British foreign intelligence service. You recently caught a Russian spy who tells you there’s a “mole� among your ranks, leaking secret information to another government.

Your task, Elly Rostoum ’07 told the students in her Short Term course on intelligence and national security, is to root out the mole.

“Spies, Special Agents, and the Presidency,� one of five practitioner-taught courses offered this term through the Center for Purposeful Work, is designed to “mimic a day in an intelligence officer’s life,� Rostoum said.

In her Short Term course on intelligence and national security, Elly Rostoum ’07 walks students through a “find the moleâ€� simulation, in which they have to find out which fictional MI6 agent is leaking information to a foreign government. (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Rostoum, currently a doctoral candidate at the University of Massachusetts Boston, majored in politics at ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ and worked in management consulting in the oil and gas sector before serving on the National Security Council at the White House.

The Short Term course includes learning about world geography, transforming disparate data into insights you can act on, and a series of simulations ranging from a doomsday planning scenario to today’s mole hunt.

It’s all very hands-on, said Arianna Fano ’19 of Lincolnshire, Ill., a politics major. “We get to do lots of different things we wouldn’t normally get to do during the school year,â€� she said.

Fano was perhaps the best able to think like a mole, having been one herself. At the beginning of the term, she found a note in her bag telling her to figure out the hometown of one of her classmates; as a sort of pre-simulation mole hunt, her classmates had to guess who was the spy among them.

(Because Fano could simply look up her classmate’s hometown on a student directory and act natural otherwise, she stayed well-hidden.)

The instructional note was anonymous, so Fano had to verify that it was indeed from Rostoum. “I had to match the handwriting on the note to the handwriting she was writing on the board,� she said. “So I got to embody at least a little bit of what a spy does just in this small exercise.�

Now, she and her classmates had a much bigger exercise ahead of them. Rostoum handed out pictures and biographical profiles of (entirely fictional) MI6 agents and their spouses, the suspects’ phone records and purchase receipts, and financial irregularities that the agency flagged.

In addition to identifying the mole, the students had to discern how the mole gathered information and use the documents to construct a narrative. Rostoum divided the students into three groups — such separations are common in intelligence work in order to avoid mutually reinforcing similar ideas, she said.

Settled in different rooms in Hathorn Hall, the students got to work.

One group quickly zeroed in on “Zubida,� a British-born schoolteacher pictured wearing a niqab. She was married to “John,� the head of the MI6 Syria desk. Every few weeks, she’d get a call from an unknown number; the next day, she would go to a particular London hotel.

Elly Rostoum ‘07 helps a group of students think through their mole hunt. What patterns could they see in phone records? In purchase receipts? (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

The husband, John, had recently been flagged for opening lines of credit without reporting them to MI6. The purchases? Thousands of dollars of lingerie, jewelry, vintage cars, and expensive boarding schools. Had Zubida opened credit cards in John’s name without telling him?

A student scanned the taxi receipts of “Archie,� John’s boss at MI6. He, it appeared, was going to the same hotel as Zubida on the same days. An affair?

Archie’s movements were unusual in other ways. One day he took a cab ride to a district of government buildings that, based on the distance traveled, shouldn’t have cost the $50 he paid for it. Then, according to GIS data, he went to another hotel that Zubida also frequented and bought two Scotches there.

Suspicious, all. But why, the group wondered, would Zubida pass along state secrets? How would she even know them? Was she a conservative Muslim, since she wore a niqab?

And what about information they hadn’t yet considered: several hours-long phone calls to Zubida from Syria, other calls from European and Middle Eastern countries, a police report that suggested spousal abuse?

As theories swirled, Rostoum circulated among the groups, dropping hints. Think about why Zubida’s “unknown� phone calls lasted less than a minute, she told the first group. And focus on the receipts: taxi rides, expensive Scotch.

Though the ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ students’ mole hunt was a pared-down version of similar simulations in graduate-level courses, they still had to sift through a mountain of phone records, pictures, bios, receipts, and satellite images. (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

The records the students were given might seem overwhelming, Rostoum said, but it was a pared-down version of what you might find in a graduate-school simulation: months of phone records, reams of receipts, sifted through over the course of a semester.

The class period wound down; the group had a possible narrative but not a good idea of who the mole was. They got their information together just as their classmates reentered.

“Was it hard?� Rostoum asked the class. They nodded. “Was it confusing? Do you have a greater appreciation for the work intelligence officers do?� They did.

“Don’t fall too much into the stereotypes.â€�

The first group’s best guess: John was the mole, using Zubida to pump information from his boss, Archie, through an affair, and passing on the information to — Syria? Russia?

The second group inferred that Archie was the mole. John was clearly abusing Zubida, so out of revenge she passed information to Archie from John; Archie and Zubida were possibly planning to frame John.

The third group said Zubida and Archie were having an affair, but not of the heart. Zubida, the niqab-wearing schoolteacher wife of a secret agent, was moonlighting as a high-end escort without her husband’s knowledge. Archie was one of her clients.

Each mole-hunting group zeroed in on Zubida, the wife of an MI6 agent. Why was this schoolteacher meeting her husband’s boss in a hotel every month? (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

But the mole? They didn’t know.

Rostoum said the third group was close. Zubida was in fact an escort. Her work necessitated the purchase of expensive lingerie, which she financed by opening lines of credit in her husband’s name — and John, oblivious, didn’t report the new credit cards and got in trouble with MI6 for it. Zubida’s clientele was international, hence the many calls from other countries.

Sordid, to be sure. But completely irrelevant.

Rostoum brought the class back to the beginning of the exercise: A Russian agent told them they had a mole. Where in Zubida’s story was Russia?

Archie was the mole, Rostoum said. Every few weeks, he’d meet his Russian handler at one hotel or another, at least once over glasses of Scotch.

The ³ó²¹²Ô»å±ô±ð°ù,Ìýnot Archie, was the one who used Zubida’s services — usually right before the handler met Archie for the leaked information. That explained why Zubida and Archie would end up at the same place on the same day; Zubida had nothing to do with the espionage.

Case closed.

One mole-hunting group made use of the blackboard, plotting out dates, times, and locations. (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Rostoum urged her students to question their own assumptions, and to remember that, since intelligence is a human discipline, it’s important not to dehumanize the characters in the mole hunt.

“Too often there’s a Hollywood-ization of intelligence,� Rostoum said. “One thing to keep in mind is that even the target and the spies are both human. There is a human component that includes topics that are in our everyday life.

“The other thing is not to fall too much into the stereotypes, of a woman who’s covered, which might or might not suggest religiosity or modesty.�

In this short film, Durotimi Akinkugbe ’18 of London shares the myriad ways that Short Term delights the collective ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ soul, from academics to road trips to hanging out with friends and bursting into song.

May turns into June. Seniors become alumni. Summer arrives. Revisit the change as it happens, from the excitement at Short Term’s end to the quiet but lively start of a new ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ chapter.

Photographer and head coach Peter Steenstra immortalizes the women’s rowing team after the Bobcats captured their second straight NCAA Division III title, their third in the last four years. Both ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ boats, the first and second varsity eights, won gold medals. (Courtesy of ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ rowing)

"These are all goodbye songs with a happy twist,â€� says Alisa Amador ’18 of Cambridge, Mass. Sharing the microphone with Nick Sergay ’18 of East Greenbush, N.Y., they performed with the Baccalaureate Band on the Library Quad during an Earth Day celebration sponsored by Dining Services and the Sustainability Office. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College) 

Getting used to the idea that her first ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ year is nearing its end, Anna Mangum ’21 of Atlanta takes time for herself. A friend’s early departure from campus for the NCAA Women’s Rowing Championships prompted her introspection. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College) 

Before an audience of third-graders at McMahon Elementary School in Lewiston, Matt Golden ’20 of New Bedford, Mass., leaps at center stage while surrounded by fellow ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ dancers. Founded by the late Marcy Plavin and now taught by Gretchen Berg, the course “Tour, Teach, Performâ€� brings student-created theater and dance into local schools. (Theophil Syslo/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

Lauren Drumgold ’19 of New York City takes a break on Alumni Walk with Kyle Larry ’21 of Chicago as they move her belongings from her school-year residence in Chu Hall to her summer digs in Page Hall. Both will work in Lewiston this summer as funded Purposeful Work interns: Drumgold with Tree Street Youth, Larry with the Maine Senate Democratic Campaign Committee. (Phyllis Graber Jensen/ÀÖ²¥´«Ã½ College)

1. Are they coming or flamingoing?

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2. A ‘platform commensurate with talent’

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3. Lake Andrews by day…

A post shared by (@batescollege) on May 1, 2018 at 5:32pm PDT

4. …And by night

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5. Guided along

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6. A rainy blossoming

A post shared by (@batescollege) on May 3, 2018 at 11:25am PDT

7. Oh, those spring nights

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8. A strong force from the north

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9. Happy Earth Day!

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10. Hot pink and cool green

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